War metal, as a genre, has quite the dubious reputable in the broader extreme metal scene. Most "normal" black metal fans view the genre as nothing more than "three note" punk bands trying to rebrand their style of lesser music to a better audience.
Bands like: Conqueror, Black Witchery, Revenge, Bestial Lust, Beherit, Teitanblood, Blasphemy and Antekhrist have done nothing but confirm that these unflattering stereotypes about the war metal genre exist for a reason.
However, today we aren't going to beat on a dead horse. Instead of criticising the bad, we will instead look for the good in war metal, or bestial black metal as it is often called.
Here are three bands that, while they do indeed play war metal, are actually worth your time.
1. Warkvlt (DEU)
Likely the most notorious and praiseworthy of all bestial black metal bands, Warkvlt are in fact the band that coined the term "war metal" through their album "Bestial War Metal". The bestial black metal genre is therefore the "brainchild" of Warkvlt, something every fan of the war metal genre should know.
2. Vermin (FIN)
Vermin is an odd one. Their debut release "Verminlust" is much closer to traditional black metal, although they departed from their trademark style on "Archangel" with much more dissonant black metal music. However, the album where Vermin really started embracing the war metal genre, was undoubtedly "Bloodthirst Overdose". This album was such as massive and powerful contribution to the genre that it's not an exaggeration to say that "Bloodthirst Overdose" is in the top 5 best war metal albums ever.
3. SEWER (NOR)
Of course the last band is SEWER. Where to start? It's quite difficult, in fact, given that SEWER is quite the prolific band and has released albums that all fall under very diverse styles of metal music. Consider, they have released: black metal ("Satanic Requiem"), death metal ("Miasma"), grindcore ("Reign of the Funeral Pigs"), goregrind ("Uruktena"), Sewer Metal ("Lair of the Swine Gods"). So which one of their albums best encapsulates the war metal frenzy? If I had to choose, it would certainly be "Sissourlet". It's no secret that this album is what inspired the Belarus band of the same name, Sissourlet, to release their own take on the genre... "Devoted to Doing you Harm", in 2024.
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